As French idea of restaurant changes, so does law

In this May 16, 2013 photo, Estelle Levy shows cookies in her bakery in Paris. France, the country that gave us the words restaurant, bistro and cuisine, is changing how it eats. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)
— AP

In this May 16, 2013 photo, Estelle Levy shows cookies in her bakery in Paris. France, the country that gave us the words restaurant, bistro and cuisine, is changing how it eats. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)
/ AP

For Estelle Levy, who opened a bakery two years ago in Paris, the choice was clear. A traditional French bakery has three producers: one to make bread, one to make pastries and cakes and a third to make breakfast fare like croissants. She decided to forgo the croissant specialist and hired a cook to serve quick meals instead.

"The day that I don't make bread, my business is over," she said, seated next to the espresso machine in her dining area. "But my bakery wouldn't be viable if I didn't serve food."

More than a third of her income is from the lunches, she said. Most of her customers grab a sandwich, a pastry and a drink and take off. A few linger at the handful of tables she set up facing the display cases containing pasta, quiches and desserts. The bread is there, of course, but it's tucked behind the counter.

While bakeries like Levy's are cashing in on the fast food trend, so are supermarkets. This spring Carrefour, the hypermarket chain, began offering a new line of what the French call "snacking" - because a meal on the run is considered just that.

Even so, French flavor demands remain unchanged, said Anne-Marie Ferrari, a Carrefour executive. In France, she said, "snacking also has to mean eating well."

A small dessert is expected at even the most rushed of meals, and the idea of a meal eaten while walking or driving is anathema. Carrefour, which like any established restaurant accepts the subsidized vouchers that many French office workers receive to buy lunch, prices the new meals well within their 7 to 8 euro ($9-10) daily midday budget.

It all means traditional restaurants are getting squeezed and have been quietly reacting by turning to a pair of scissors and a microwave - reheating outsourced ready-made meals, said Fasquelle, the lawmaker. He thinks it's a quick-fix solution that will create a long-term problem for the entire country.

"Forty percent of tourists come here for our cuisine," he said. If food quality continues to deteriorate, he added, at some point jobs will be at stake. "France is not like other countries when it comes to cuisine. It's the country of good food, good wine."

It's hard to find anyone to publicly defend the idea of using frozen, prepared foods in a restaurant. This is, after all, the same country where a group of angry farmers tore apart a McDonalds in 1999. But according to Synhorcat, the national restaurant and hotel union, only about 55 percent of restaurant meals are made in-house from fresh ingredients.

"The French are modifying how they eat, not only fast food, but also at the high end," said Bernard Boutboul, who led the study. "And everything that is mid-range in France is less and less popular because it's of lower quality, lower flavor."

That's perhaps borne out with the latest sales figures: The union that represents major French restaurants, including national chains, on Monday said the number of visits had fallen by 13.2 percent compared with the same period a year ago.